Rick, what exactly is the reason you are "attacking" me? It seems it is my age for some reason? or possibly because I did not agree with everybody else about this issue. Either way, not quite sure what your problem is. I am just expressing my opinion after looking at all the evidence that was given in the story. And I gave reasoning behind it, so you either agree or you don't. We are all entitled to our own opinion. In my opinion, auction letters mean close to nothing. they can not be taken seriously. I believe TPA's only charge about 10-20 dollars to do these auction letters, so obviously they are not going to spend much time with each item. Just look at briefly for things that stick out to them, and then they move on. As compared to when they fully authenticate, they typically do a much more thorough examination (especially for higher end items). For instance, here is a yankee team ball on ebay with an auction LOA,
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1957-NY-Yank...item1e6a6a3961. In my opinion, that Mantle is a "clubhouse" autograph. But it does not say that in the auction letter description. I am not surprised to see this, it is an auction letter. These are the types of things to be careful of when buying items with auction letters.
And no, I will not "trust you". Why would I do that? That is what scam artists say to me as they are a offering a bogus Babe Ruth autograph for me to buy. I would trust somebody a lot more like Richard who has been in this hobby since the beginning and I know he has lots of experience, which is everything in this hobby.